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[quote=HowlerKarma]Flightless birds in eagle suits? That is an extremely condescending statement.

Just because these students are willing to jump through the hoops that these schools require for admission does not make them less intelligent.

It also happens to be true for a certain subset of the population at certain universities.

The issue here is one of the developmental arc through a lifetime, which we don't even seem to understand.

I use the "free" strategy for undergrad and so does my wife's family, so this conversation is pretty moot to me.

Which means, I am targeting 75% to 100% merit-based financial aid for my DD (first to college) to begin with. I will revise the approach accordingly as college gets closer.

I've been playing this game since the early 1990's (either myself or advising others) and so far my strategies and tools have worked.

However, I consider a lot of the process to be a complete joke because my goal is to game and rig it with *minimal* effort and time pressures on my children in terms of "playing the game".

I am still considering whether dogging is going to be one of my tools. However, driving all over God's Green Earth to develop your champion dog is a ginormous pain (although quite effective if your child enjoys it...some kids love dogging).